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preferred hospital?
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Anonymous
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I'm a doula and I've attended many births at all of these hospitals. My two favorite hospitals are:
Washington Hospital Center and Anne Arundal Medical Center. Both of these hospitals have midwives working at them, and I believe the nurses who work there have learned from the midwives how to be more flexible and attentive. My least favorite is Sibley. Yes, there are a handful of awesome nurses there, but overall they do not support laboring moms in normal ways. If you want a scheduled c/section and don't really care too much about breastfeeding, then you will probably have a fantastic experience at Sibley. (I mean that seriously!) Ask the people who attend births at a variety of hospitals and birth centers and you will get a much more informed opinion! |
Anonymous
| We live in Montgomery County and we are choosing Holy Cross. They have all private rooms, a large OB ward (experience) and a level 3 NICU, which was an important "just in case" for us. I have heard some good things about their lactation services as well, and its cloes to home. So that made our decision. |
Anonymous
| We are delivering at Shady Grove Hospital -- all new private rooms (with tubs/jets) for labor/delivery, new post delivery rooms, great staff, doulas welcome. etc.. The model of care they follow is quite progressive and just what we were looking for. |
Anonymous
Can you actually deliver in the tubs? My understanding was they were just for laboring. But that may have changed. |
Anonymous
| Sibley! Had my doubts when I learned about the not guaranteed private rooms but checked out the other hospitals and this ended up being my choice. Had a great delivery there and C-sections perhaps somewhat higher because of the average age of the mums but I agree that it depends on your OBGYN and not the hospital. |
Anonymous
| I toured Sibley, Washington Adventist (closest to me) and Holy Cross and chose Holy Cross. |
Anonymous
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Holy Cross is a mile from our house and it's where our OB practice delivers, so the choice was made for us. But I had a good experience, all private rooms, etc. It has a Level 3(?) NICU. I can't remember the order (i.e., whether level 1 is the highest or level 4), but only Children's and Georgetown have the highest level in this area. HC is one below the highest.
I would echo some of the PPs who suggested that you choose your OB first, and see where he/she has privileges, unless you feel strongly about a particular hospital. I really think the OB makes much more of a difference to your pregnancy and birth experiences than the hospital. |
Anonymous
LevelI is lowest and LevelIII is highest. Most of the designation criteria has to do with the ability to subspecialize in neonatal critical care and maintain certain staffing levels. LevelIII is then broken down into LevelIIIA to LevelIIID depending on the level of surgical, cardiovascular and respitory care they provide. Some LevelIIIC and D hospitals call themselves a LevelIV NICU for "marketing" purposes though it is not an official designation. In addition to Children's and Georgetown, INOVA Fairfax also has a Level3 NICU. Not sure what all three LevelIII subspecialty letter designations are, but I think they are all LevelIIIC NICU's. |
Anonymous
| You have to wonder about Sibley's high c-section rate. Sibley and/or the ob/gyn generalists punt many high risk cases..prematurity risk, multiples, PE/HELLP to hospitals with higher level NICUs and MFMs. High risks moms with pre existing conditions tend to go with a high risk peri or MFM ie GW, GU, Shady Grove or Fairfax. Those hospitals should have higher c sections for those reasons than Sibley. |
Anonymous
| I can't say enough great things about Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington. Top Notch! |
Anonymous
| You may also want to consider which hospitals are part of the 5 million lives campaign to reduce medical errors (http://www.ihi.org/IHI/Programs/Campaign/Campaign.htm?TabId=1). In DC, Georgetown and WHC are participating hospitals. Or at least ask what steps your hosital takes to prevent mistakes in Rx dosage and infections. |
Anonymous
What is the name of your doctor who delivers at Georgetown? Would you recommend him or her? |
Anonymous
I go to Georgetown's "own" OB/GYN practice. If you search on here and the archived posts, you will see a lot of info about this practice and the different doctors there. The doctor I used to see and really liked (Dr Buek) is no longer with the practice, and several others I've met during my pregnancy were so-so personality wise, so while I had a good experience overall last time I am not 100% sure a this point that I will be using this practice for my next pregnancy. It's very busy and the wait times are often crazy, even for early morning appointments. On the other hand, I felt that everyone was highly competent and that I was in good hands. And as I mentioned above, Gtown hospital was good to deliver at. |
Anonymous
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What is the name of your doctor who delivers at Georgetown? Would you recommend him or her? I am a different poster, but I am seeing Megan Breen and have been really happy with her. I wanted to go to the Georgetown practice, I had heard some good things about a couple of the people there, and when I called to make my first appointment I asked the receptionist for a recommendation between the people I had heard about, since the office staff is often a good judge of the physician's personality and their patient satisfaction. The person I talked to said that people seem really happy with Dr. Breen, and I have really liked her. |
Anonymous
| Dr Breen was one of the doctors at Gtown that I really didn't care for. Maybe I caught her on a bad day, but she was really rude and condescending to me. That appointment was also the longest wait by far out of all the appts I've ever had at that practice - 2 hours and 10 minutes, with not one word of apology. I would not see her again. Also, at one point she was not accepting new patients (but this was a while ago, maybe things changed since then). |